The present invention generally relates to methods and equipment for cutting food products, and shapes of food products produced thereby.
Various pieces of equipment are used for slicing, shredding, and texturing food products such as vegetable, fruit, dairy, and meat products. Commonly used equipment used in this field are commercially available from Urschel Laboratories, Inc., under the name Urschel Model CC®, which are centrifugal-type cutting machines capable of producing uniform slices, strip cuts, shreds and granulations of a wide variety of food products at high production capacities. Model CC® machines generally comprise one or more knife assemblies arranged in sets spaced around the circumference of a cutting head.
Various types of knives have been developed for making specific types of cuts in food products, examples of which are knives developed to produce what is known as the julienne cut. Such a cut typically results in a food product, commonly a vegetable, being cut into long strips with rectangular or square cross sections. FIGS. 7 through 9 represent knives 50, 52 and 54 recently developed to produce julienne cuts with machines such as the aforementioned Urschel Model CC® machines. Each of the knives 50, 52 and 54 comprises a large-amplitude shaped (corrugated) blade 56 suitable for producing large-amplitude shaped food products, including shaped shredded and shaped strip-cut food products, non-limiting examples of which include those disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. Nos. D711068 and D704919. The profiles of these blades 56, when viewed from their leading edges 60, resemble a wave pattern, while secondary blades (tabs 58) are shown as located at the peaks 62 of these waves to produce a desired julienne cross section. In use, the leading edge 60 of the blade 56 cuts a slice off of a food product, followed by the julienne tabs 58 that cut the slice into strips.
The leading edges of the tabs 58 represented in FIG. 7 are located behind the leading edge 60 of the blade 56 and the tabs 58 extend to the trailing edge of the blade 56. Relatively narrow julienne tabs 58 are represented in FIG. 8, and relatively narrow staggered julienne tabs 58 are represented in FIG. 9. The tabs 58 of FIG. 7 are also represented as each having a height from a surface of the blade 56 to the outermost extent of the julienne tab 58 that is a maximum in proximity to the leading edge 60 of the blade 56 (corresponding to the leading edge of the tab 58) and continuously tapers to a minimum at or adjacent the trailing edge of the blade 56 (corresponding to the trailing edge of the tab 58). It will be appreciated that the tabs 58 of FIGS. 7 through 9 may be modified to have any shape or size suitable for cutting the food product slices into strips. While shown as located only on the peaks 62, it is foreseeable that tabs 58 could be additionally or alternatively located in the valleys 64 of the blades 56.
An advantageous aspect of the knives 50, 52 and 54 of FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 is the avoidance of the prior art practice of using a knife assembly comprising a shaped blade and a separate julienne knife. The tabs 58 can be metallurgically joined to the blade 56 by any means known in the art, for example, brazing and/or welding, for example, laser welding. The wider julienne tabs 58 represented in FIG. 7 are believed to be more securely attachable to the blade 56 than are narrower tabs 58 of the types represented in FIGS. 8 and 9, as more surface area of each wider tab 58 is secured to the blade 56 relative to the narrower tabs 58. However, wider tabs 58 may exert excessive forces on the food product slices. It is believed that, as a slice is produced by the blade 56, the slice deforms around the thickness of individual tabs 58, creating pressure on the slice between adjacent tabs 58. If the pressure between the tabs 58 is too great, the now-separated slice could slow and potentially stop before the julienne slices are complete. For this reason, the julienne tabs 58 are preferably constructed of the thinnest material possible while maintaining structural rigidity. Because the tabs 58 of sequential blades 56 are also sequential, it may be desirable to narrow (as in FIG. 8) and/or stagger (as in FIG. 9) the tabs 58, that is, at differing distances from the leading edge of the blade 56, to minimize the pressure between adjacent tabs 58.
While well suited for the intended purpose, it would be desirable if alternative configurations for knives of the types described above were available for producing julienne cuts in food products.